First off, for those of you who are celebrating Thanksgiving this Thursday, please accept our best wishes for a safe and happy holiday. For those who are struggling themselves (or who have friends or family who are), please accept our sincere and best wishes for a speedy and full recovery.
For those who are not in the US, please be aware that Thursday is a national holiday. Further, it is traditional for most people, where possible, to also take off Friday, too. This allows for an extended period of time: Thursday through Sunday, inclusive.
Our editorial staff has been happy to provide stories for the community's discussion. There is much that happens behind the scenes. I am taking this opportunity to publicly thank all of them for their hard work and their sacrifices of time and energy.
I am encouraging the editorial staff to take a break during this holiday period. Therefore, we will be on a reduced, weekend schedule from Thursday through Sunday (UTC), inclusive. We will continue to check in during this period... we thank you in advance for continuing to send in your story submissions.
Again, please accept our genuine best wishes for a safe and happy holiday!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @12:58AM (3 children)
Thank you to you and everybody else on the SN team. Stay safe and well. Enjoy your Thanksgiving break.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 26 2020, @01:20AM (1 child)
I'll second that. Can we get a third?
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @01:37AM
Sure--
The beatings will stop once morale improves. (grin)
Thanks everyone!!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AnonTechie on Thursday November 26 2020, @11:33AM
I send my very best wishes to all those who celebrate Thanksgiving and, my heartfelt thanks to all Editors. Do enjoy your short break. Be safe and stay healthy !
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 5, Touché) by barbara hudson on Thursday November 26 2020, @01:01AM (6 children)
We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas ...
And stay the fuck at home!
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @01:21AM (5 children)
Hey, Benedict. Christmas is a month away, even in Canada.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday November 26 2020, @01:38AM (4 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @02:16AM
Dammit, Benedict, all you ever do is whinge. And, you wonder why nobody ever names their kids Benedict Arnold. We don't even like eggs Benedict very much!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @06:57AM (2 children)
It's not government going to the neighbor to say hello and just pop in with their parents to drop off groceries in their fridge.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday November 26 2020, @01:05PM (1 child)
But it IS government that keeps changing the messaging every few days, to the point where nobody can be certain what is and isn't allowed.
Ontario - stay home for Christmas. Quebec (half the population of Ontario, but almost 2/3 of all covid deaths in Canada) - 2 family gatherings of up to 30 people permitted, don't get tested unless you have symptoms (even though half of all adults are asymptomatic, 3/4 of preschoolers are a symptomatic, the schools are crawling with covid).
It was a big mistake not to leave Quebec. And now that my "good" eye had a series of haemorrhages and is now also legally blind, I can't. Even before that it was too risky to ride a bicycle, never mind drive a car. And eye surgery? Really backed up..
It's ridiculous. I have a 50" TV 48" from the couch and I can't see it. And yet I'm not classified as handicapped "because it might only be temporary " even though it's been going on for a decade.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @11:11PM
If only you could find a place where they paid you to whine, you would have it made!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @01:51AM (3 children)
Pour a gulp out for MDC, who asked for bananas for potassium and for help covering his meds in an insurance gap, and we failed him; who thanklessly worked to hound criminals like those who abused him as a child; our wide-minded child of callousness and innocence, who could not survive the brutal societal territory of the USA to live to see this thanksgiving.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @02:17AM
Yeah, yeah, MDC, who thought of himself as a round peg. Actually, he was more elliptical.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Thursday November 26 2020, @10:56AM
I'll pour one for Mike this coming weekend, because we don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here. But I'll wish all you Americans a very happy Thanksgiving.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @11:10AM
He wasn't so much in to alcohol. His vice was much more sexual, in so many different and strange ways. Who can forget his story about the two-handed glory hole adventure?
The proper way to honor MDC is thus to do the most perverted thing. Take that Thanksgiving turkey, and stuff it. Fill it with baby batter. Serve the turkey with your special sauce.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday November 26 2020, @02:01AM (2 children)
Covid or not, it's good for your health; physical and mental. I opened the season today - a day earlier - quarantine be damned.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @02:21AM
But - what about the abominable snowman?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2020, @04:07AM
Are you in Switzerland?
Germany urges EU nations to shut ski slopes over Christmas to keep coronavirus in check [cnn.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @02:26AM
I am working those four days and Christmas too!
We are IT people. Holidays are when i have all the equipment to myself.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @06:28AM (17 children)
The original reason for being thankful is weird and interesting, and very relevant to mistakes that keep getting repeated.
https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=45817 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @08:29AM (7 children)
The article's description of Plymouth's capitalism is a far cry from the present day. A better analogy for the present day would be if a large corporation or two owned the land in Plymouth and paid the colonists to work the land. The colonists could then purchase food from the corporation. The owners of the corporation would become wealthy by trading with the tribes in the area while the colonists would have far less wealth.
That's in contrast to Plymouth, in which person or family was given a parcel of land proportional to the size of the household, then told to work the land to provide for themselves. The colony provided the land so that each person had equal opportunity and was able to directly benefit from the work they performed. It wasn't private property as we think of it today because it was only given for present use and not to be passed down to family members through inheritance. The distribution of land was effectively a social program to provide everyone with the means to feed themselves and obtain income by trading the goods they produced. Moreover, the land was distributed equitably according to the size of families so that everyone would have enough provided they worked hard enough.
It may be an argument against socialism, but it's hardly a ringing endorsement of capitalism as it's practiced today in the United States. The term 'socialism' is misused by Americans across the political spectrum and is not actual socialism but rather capitalism with strong social programs. That's not altogether different from what was actually done in Plymouth.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @09:01AM (6 children)
Americans are confused - its not socialism they are opposed to, its reality.
Disclaimer: I am a turkey.
--
You have the right to remain dead.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @11:02AM (5 children)
If job performance reliably makes the difference between comfort and misery, and this is true in a relative way over a wide range of performance levels, then people will perform well and the economy will be OK.
Add some welfare because we hate to see useless bums starve to death, and add some taxes to divert the resources of the industrious producers to those useless takers, and pretty soon you've disconnected job performance from what people get to have. Nobody will do the difficult yucky work. Nobody will work long hours. As the economy collapses, the taxes increase in a hopeless attempt to deliver the promised comforts, but that drives more workers to give up.
We have a choice: let the least-productive suffer, or collapse the whole economy so that we all suffer. There is no long-term way to prevent all suffering.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @02:50PM
> There is no long-term way
But, but, but, aren't the robots going to do all the dirty work?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Thursday November 26 2020, @03:17PM (3 children)
Some people actually enjoy working. Just look at how many people do volunteer work after retirement.
There's a reason for increased incidence of depression and anxiety after a layoff, and it's not all economic. For those ofwho aren't lazy bums or spongers, earning your way in the world gives a sense of control over your life, a certain pride in not being a perme-taker.
24% hate their jobs; but for the 63% for whom it's just a job, it still supplies an emotional sense of self-sufficiency.
And for the 13% who are really into what they do, the money is just compensation for dealing with the idiot bosses and slacker co-workers, because they got into it because it's what they were interested in, not because of the money.
In other words, if you weren't doing it as a job, you'd probably take a "meh" job so you can be doing it as a hobby.
The real problem is helping the 63% find ways to join the 13% who really enjoy their work, not to "increase productivity ", but increase happiness. Happy people will, as a side effect, be more productive.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2020, @01:16AM (2 children)
That 13% is really out of touch.
I saw a man earn his pay. You think I could find a volunteer? Really?
He came over to unclog a sewage pipe that ran across a basement ceiling. It was well beyond what could be handled from above, having clogged slowly over decades. He needed a powerful motorized cutter blade to clear out the gunk, and for that he needed access to the inside of the pipe. He took the end cap off, and that pipe became a shit rocket nozzle. He then worked for hours. He had to change blades, because the one meant for large pipes encountered enough resistance that it stopped the motor. (this motor was the size of a lawnmower engine but electric) By the end of the day he was covered head to toe in human shit, some recent and some decades old.
I've also watched road workers put down tar in the heat of a hot Florida day. That didn't look fun at all. Do you have volunteers for that?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2020, @02:15AM (1 child)
I give up! Was it Runaway?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2020, @03:35AM
Naw, it was Mike Rowe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Rowe [wikipedia.org] if you don't know who he is.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday November 26 2020, @09:04AM (8 children)
I laugh that the Democrats are considered socialist in the article (written in 2008).
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @11:19AM (7 children)
If a person wants socialism, would they rather vote republican or democrat? Clearly, the socialists all vote democrat.
There are enough to influence the party.
Some people don't really understand that the hope and change eventually leads to starvation and mass graves. They still insist that that wasn't "real socialism" or "real communism" or whatever, ignoring that it's what we always get when we pursue that nonsense.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday November 26 2020, @02:21PM (6 children)
Always get? Even in Scandinavia?
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2020, @11:16PM (1 child)
You might ask the mink . . .
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday November 27 2020, @12:59PM
True :(
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2020, @01:32AM (3 children)
First of all, it still has a very free economy. It has a stupid and dangerous tax burden to support all the slackers, so the future looks bleak, but things haven't yet gone off the cliff.
Part of the success comes from not paying their way in the world. Scandinavia military spending does not abide by NATO agreements. That's a treaty violation. Maybe the USA should remind Scandinavia that this would justify ignoring the NATO agreement to help defend Scandinavia. Putin can have it.
So clearly the whole region is slacking, taking advantage of the protection provided by the USA. Slacking can't work for everybody.
Another problem is that your use of Scandinavia as an example is basically white nationalism. Lovely. Scandinavians would feel very guilty and shamed if they didn't contribute to society, so it wasn't a problem that handouts were generous. Nobody would abuse the system. That all changed with the immigrants who have recently been causing trouble. Most of them are unemployed and quite happy to abuse the blonde infidels. The social harmony is rapidly coming apart.
The left has put the USA on a path to be more like Brazil or India. Those are large diverse countries with socialism.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday November 27 2020, @12:59PM (2 children)
Sheesh. Given that the vast majority of Scandinavia isn't even in fucking NATO, of course they don't abide by NATO agreements, and there's no treaty to violate.
Dear Americans, please learn some geography before making comments about other parts of the world. Clue: if you can't point to it on a map, you have no right to be even discussing it.
> The left has put the USA on a path ...
Thank you for confirming the "more rightwing ~ more stupid" stereotype, you may have wanted to annoy your so-called "left" (which aren't - learn some political history too), but in so doing, you've virtually patted them on the back by letting them feel more clever than you.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday November 27 2020, @07:34PM (1 child)
That's an impossible standard. You do realize that many 'Muricans can't even find 'Murica on a map? If you spent an hour or two, helping the average American to find his way around on a globe, you would totally fuck him up by removing the globe from it's bracket, and reinserting the globe upside down. :^|
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday November 28 2020, @10:51AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Thursday November 26 2020, @01:19PM
I'm thankful for all the hard work and all the folks that make Soylent News go!
I wish each and every one of you a safe and happy holiday!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr